


we're gonna fly around (with flames in our eyes)

by green_tea31



Series: MacGyver Season 3 Tags [6]
Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Episode Tag, Friendship, Gen, Making Friends: The Mac and Desi Edition, Male-Female Friendship, Mostly Gen, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-09 05:49:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18632080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/green_tea31/pseuds/green_tea31
Summary: “You were supposed to be the responsible one…," Jack laments because that’s the Desi Jack knows, the take-no-prisoners, no-nonsense approach kind of soldier, not the adrenaline junkie she’d apparently been before Jack had ever met her.Hiking into an active volcano…ye gods…(Tag to 3x20. Desi's date doesn't go well. She and Mac bond by way of delinquency and Jack realizes that maybe he should have thought this through a bit more.)





	we're gonna fly around (with flames in our eyes)

**Author's Note:**

> Posted a bit of this on tumblr last night, mostly because I was already in bed and didn't want to forget this idea. Warnings for slightly longer author's note at the end regarding the episode. Blink and you miss it macdalton because it's me and I just couldn't not. Also, this is not the fic I should be working on. I promise I'm working on the next chapter of "my heart lay waiting", real life's just a bitch sometimes.
> 
> As always, self-betaed. All mistakes are my own.
> 
> Title taken from "Bad Ideas" by "Alle Farben" which is now my official theme song for Mac and Desi's friendship.

Mac finds Desi next to the fire pit, wrapped in one of his blankets, drinking the last beer from the fridge, and staring into the distance, hours after everyone went home. Ignoring the fact that this is the second time she’s broken into his house now, Mac joins her.

“I’m guessing the date didn’t go well?” Mac had been pleasantly surprised when she dropped by before her date. The two of them have started to find their rhythm, but he’s still trying to get her to spend more time with the team.

He has a feeling Desi could use a friend or two.

“That’s putting it mildly…asshole didn’t know how to take no for an answer.” She puts down her bottle and draws the blanket tighter around herself.

Mac winces. “Need Riley to scrub any security footage?” Mac asks carefully because he can’t imagine she just let the guy off the hook for that one. Desi glances at him and grins sheepishly.

“Not really. Think I was too nice actually…why is it that every time I try dating a guy something goes wrong. Girls are definitely easier.” Mac snorts.

“Amen to that.” Mac is vaguely surprised how at ease he feels sitting next to her, talking about pretty intimate things, but maybe he shouldn’t be. They’re both intensely private people, even if Desi is much more upfront about it than Mac, but they also have a lot in common, experiences and past hurts that Mac doesn’t share with anyone else except for Jack.

And Jack is far, far away these days.

He’s reminded of something Jack once said to him, when they were still in the desert together, one of these slow, seemingly never-ending days that ate at Mac until he thought he could _taste_ the sand in the back of his throat.

_"I know what loneliness looks like. You’re trying to separate yourself from the world, ‘cause it hurts too much, but you don’t always have to pretend, hoss, not with me. Sometimes it’s easier to be lonely together."_

He looks at Desi and thinks that maybe he’s found someone else to be lonely with and maybe, someday soon, they’ll get to the place where loneliness is replaced by friendship, same as happened with him and Jack.

Maybe Mac could use another friend, too.

“Mac?” Desi asks a little hesitantly. “I really think I let that guy off way too easily…wanna help me teach him a lesson?”

Mac silences the voice in his head telling him that this is a very bad idea because he recognizes the question for the offer it is. He and Desi apparently have a lot more in common than Jack may have realized, even if it’s just a not-so-well-concealed habit of making friends by way of possible delinquency.

“What did you have in mind?”

…

_“I think we should probably run now.” Mac is smiling wildly, trying to catch his breath while Desi still laughs at the look on her date’s face when he found his precious car relocated to the restaurant’s roof. Of course, their little stumble into the paint cans wasn’t part of the plan but all things considered, Desi thinks this was kind of a success._

_“The look…on his face. Oh God, I don’t think I’m ever going to forget that again.” She unsuccessfully tries to wipe her hands clean on her now ruined dress and glances at Mac who shrugs._

_“It’s oil paint. I’ve got some turpentine at home to get us clean.” They look back to the restaurant when the screaming starts up again._

_Desi grins, still high on adrenaline._

_“Run?”_

_They run._

…  

“You two did what?” Jack resists the urge to rub a hand over his face in frustration because this is not the kind of video call he was expecting.

“It was her idea.”

“It was his fault.”

Is the simultaneous response he gets, followed by Mac and Desi throwing a sheepish glance at each other.

“Alright…so you,” Jack looks at Desi, “were on a date…which went bad because your date was rude and an asshole…” He trails off and Mac takes over.

“I found her drinking beer out back at three in the morning and then one thing led to another and…” Mac shrugs as if it’s no big deal.

“And then the two of you decided that the guy needed to be taught a lesson, yeah I got that part…still doesn’t explain why you’re covered in paint.”

Desi tries to say something but Jack interrupts her. “You know what, don’t tell me…I really don’t wanna know.”

“To be fair, the guy did have trouble taking no for an answer…I think we did every woman in LA a favour,” Desi interjects and Jack has to admit she’s got a point.

Still…

He maybe should have thought this through a bit more.

“You were supposed to be the responsible one…," Jack laments because that’s the Desi Jack knows, the take-no-prisoners, no-nonsense approach kind of soldier, not the adrenaline junkie she’d apparently been before Jack had ever met her.

Hiking into an active volcano… _ye gods_ …

He should _never_ have asked about their last mission.

Oh, don’t get him wrong. Jack knows she’ll keep Mac safe, he just isn’t sure how much destruction the king and queen of bad ideas are going to leave in their wake in the process.

Currently they’re looking at Jack more like two bedraggled puppies who know they did something wrong but don’t regret it either way.

"Where the hell was Bozer in all this?” Jack asks and Mac shrugs in response.

“No idea, he’s been kind of weird lately.”

“He thinks Mac and I have a crush on each other,” Desi says grinning.

“Why the hell would he think that?” And Jack would really like to know that, too.

“Not that you’re not lovely, but…” Mac stammers. Desi takes pity on him.

“Sparky’s fault…though I’m pretty sure he’s fucking with Bozer. Remember that thing in the lab where they were watching us? And then we compared stories while searching the stadium…and I wore that dress coming to your house.”

“But that’s all stuff I’ve done with Jack, too,” Mac begins and Jack ignores Desi’s knowing glance in his direction. The women in his life are way too perceptive for his peace of mind. He’s maybe a little too attached to the kid, so what, everything else is between him and the God Jack isn’t sure he believes in anymore. No reason to upset the status quo.

“And why would you not wear the dress on your way to the date…you couldn’t exactly have changed in the bathroom,” Mac finishes and Desi nods.

The two turn back towards Jack, identical expressions of innocent confusion on their adorable faces.

Jack mentally doubles the amount of damage he’s going to have to deal with when he visits next.

Delinquents, both of them. First thing tomorrow, he’s going to call Matty to discuss damage control.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Sooo  
> I honestly kind of loved the episode? This is the friendship I want Mac and Desi to have. I know some people complained that Desi was too nice in this episode but I honestly think that's just the timing of the show because they integrated Matty and Cage pretty quickly, too.  
> Now on to address the elephant in the room...  
> You guys realize nearly every interaction they had, Mac could have also had with Jack? Yes, even the glances. And people still wonder why we ship macdalton. As for the whole Bozer and Riley discussing it thing. I think that either Sparky is messing with Bozer or Bozer's little reprogramming didn't work quite as well as he thinks it did. Seriously, I love Bozer but when the hell did he become that kind of tech-genius anyway? I think that Lenkov has something else in mind for this whole development and for now I'm just enjoying getting a friendship that looks a lot like his famous bromances just with one of the "bros" being a woman. 
> 
> And the dress thing, you ask? Actually, I've been calling this the "Rob Pearlstein" problem in my head, who only wrote three episodes so far but managed to inject a pretty heavy dose of what a fellow tumblr user called "WRITTEN BY A MAN moment" into each, something the show has suffered from since season one, so I'm holding out judgement on that.
> 
> Having said all this, if they do go in that direction, with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer apparently or make this into some kind of unrequited love thing, forget everything I just wrote, fuck you to the macgyver writers and I'm moving into fanfiction land. (I'm not actually against Mac/Desi, IN THE FAR FUTURE, because I may be dedicated to macdalton but I'm realistic enough to realize that's never going to happen on screen and dammit I want my bromance, too)  
> Anyone know a better term for that when it isn't actually about two "bros"?


End file.
